I have always been jealous of book characters because all of the food descriptions in books look so good!

Caspian Estevez says that he thinks about eating fictional food “all the time. They just seem better than real food.” Estevez told me about how much he wanted to try butter beer as a kid, so he “tried it at Universal and then I remembered I don’t like carbonated drinks. The bubbles hurt my throat so I kind of just sipped it very slowly.”

My friend Hana Fares has similar feelings. She says she has wanted to try the food from “genuinely every food scene in any Studio Ghibli film.” Hana tried making November Cakes from The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater but sadly she “kind of failed spectacularly.” Her words, not mine!

Unlike my dear friends, I have made a bunch of fictional food and it has never steered me wrong.

This week, I decided to make food from “Carry On” by Rainbow Rowell. In the novel, character Simon Snow discusses multiple times his love of sour cherry scones so those were obviously on the list.

“Penelope gets us a plate of cheese sandwiches and a mountain of warm scones, and I tear through half a block of butter. (I eat my scones with big slabs of it, so the butter melts on the outside but keeps a cold bite in the middle.) Penny’s watching me like I’m mildly disgusting, but also like she’d missed me.” -“Carry On,” Rainbow Rowell

My first problem rose when I couldn’t find cherries (canned or otherwise) at my local super market, so I had to switch the recipe I used to be strawberry scones last minute.  Good thing I have already made sour cherry scones on my own.

They are delicious, light and fluffy and so so warm. I wanted to be as similar to Simon in the books so I used huge slabs of butter and it changed my life. You will never catch me eating a scone without butter again. My biggest struggle was grating the butter but it was totally worth it.

Because of my strawberry/cherry mix up, I wanted to do a second recipe from the book. I decided on Basilton’s shepard’s pie.

“We finish the shepherd’s pie, eating out of the bowl on Baz’s lap. He chews with his hand over his mouth. I try to remember whether I’ve ever seen him eat before.… I finish the milk. He doesn’t want any.” -“Carry On,” Rainbow Rowell.

This also turned out really yummy! The recipe I used was wonderful and simple making it easy to modify to fit my families tastes. As I ate I couldn’t stop thinking, this is what Simon Snow would want.

My family was not nearly as excited as I was, but they even admitted that they liked the food, especially the scones.

For anyone that wants to try a fictional food, go out and do it. There is nothing more satisfying than eating  something you made and knowing your favorite characters would be proud.